Opinion - Panic, not panic, I was petrified.
It started with a video on social media, which went viral. A man walking in a mall, carrying his son on his hip and then three men accosting him, trying to take the child away.
The warning of a “live child abduction in progress”. My heart raced. Then there was the Miguel Louw case. A 9-year-old, who resembles my son, abducted and missing after school and in a neighbourhood not far from where I live. The internet was flooded. One video after the next showing similar experiences around the country.
My husband and I prayed for our children to be safe, spoke to them about talking to strangers, created the safe words with them and taught them self-defence techniques.
My son and 4-year-old daughter, in turn, became petrified. The panic it created led to us buying child leashes to attach to ourselves, so they would be joined to us at the hip.
We put tracking apps on my son's phone, and I became obsessive - waiting until they were safe in their classrooms and fetching them on time.
As parents, none of us wants to experience that kind of trauma.
Then the revelations came. The first video was actually footage of a man being caught shoplifting. He hid the stolen goods in his shirt and carried his son on his hip to cover the bulge.
The so called “kidnappers” were actually security guards trying to retrieve the stolen goods and remand him in their custody until the police arrived.
Then it emerged in the Miguel Louw story that the man alleged to have kidnapped him - charged with human trafficking - was known to the child and his mother.
We can also go back to the Siam Lee story. And there again, it later emerged that her lifestyle meant she was allegedly known to the perpetrator.
The latter two ended tragically, but none of the aforementioned incidents involved trafficking.
Still, the videos continued to cause panic, with the police issuing a statement that there was no evidence some of the incidents reported took place in the country and were legitimate.
The only reasonable conclusion is that they could be hoaxes, or re-enactments taken in a way that neither the location nor any other can be ascertained.
Then there was a more shocking revelation by Africa Check.org, which stated: “The claim remains exaggerated and unsubstantiated. South Africa's Department of Home Affairs recently told Parliament that its new travel regulations would help prevent an estimated 30 000 children being trafficked in the country each year, but in reality, only 23 cases were reported in the past three years.
Further suggestions from various political analysts purported the hype was deliberately created to detract South Africans from the real crises in our country, including the economy.
So was it a hoax, a political agenda or bad life choices? Is South Africa in the midst of a child trafficking calamity?
A television news channel recently reported: “Immigration officials believe a syndicate in a Home Affairs office is helping human traffickers. Since the beginning of the year, 15 children have been saved from being trafficked at OR Tambo International Airport. The traffickers had fraudulent travel documents. South Africa appears to have become a greater hot target for child traffickers, with their transit points being at the country's largest and busiest airport.”
It went on to reveal that a Nigerian couple tried to smuggle three South African-born children out of the country to Nigeria, using fraudulent documents.
“In the past two months, officials stopped eight children from being smuggled out of the country.”
It was the main reason the government implemented stricter travelling regulations, which now requires minors to travel with Unabridged Birth Certificates and authorisation for them to travel from their parents or legal guardians. But the question is, how many children are trafficked in South Africa each year? Are the estimates reliable? And will stricter visa regulations help?
Marcel van der Watt, a lecturer and researcher at the University of South Africa's Department of Police Practice, told Africa Check that no one knew how many children were trafficked in the country annually.
“Unfortunately, there is little data and research on the prevalence of child trafficking in South Africa. This is partly because it is extremely difficult, and in most cases, impossible to quantify how many cases go undetected. Available research only sheds light on detected victims.”
Again, as a country, are we in the clutches of serious child trafficking, and as a mother, should my overly obsessive panic continue?
The answer came from a woman I consider a powerhouse, advocate Simi Pillay-Van Graan, who works in the depth of it all but more importantly is a mother herself.
“I understand completely that no one should share fake news. However, no one has the capability to confirm whether news is fake or not. Being an advocate, and having had to prosecute cases involving children, who were murdered and mutilated after being kidnapped, my view is very different.
“If people on this platform have the expert experience of seeing thousands of dockets of this kind and visiting mortuaries to establish forensic evidence from the bodies of children, the view will be different. A child's life is valuable and every second counts from the time a child is kidnapped. There is no time to waste checking Google for confirmation, let alone trying to obtain case numbers from our inefficient SAPS. I would rather circulate the information and have it proven false than not circulating the information; where clarity cannot be obtained on its authenticity, and the child has really been kidnapped.
“As a mother and legal professional, who has seen too many dockets involving child victims, I won't take the chance of misjudging a situation that I can not confirm for sure.
“Sometimes, we are misled into believing there are no problems because those who are supposed to be protecting society are just not doing it effectively, if at all. I will continue circulating anything that indicates a child is in danger.
“I believe we have nothing to lose in possibly saving a child's life.
"A large percentage of people on Facebook are fake by posting their filtered photos. Yet, people like it and share it. So, we can choose to focus on shallow things, or we can choose to rather potentially save a life.
“If I had to believe, for whatever reason, that a post about a child is fake and not post it, and that child is found dead, I would not be able to live with myself. Let's rather be wrong, instead of being regretful.”
I think I will hang on to my leashes and be stuck at my children's hips for now. You choose life.